Domino’s Innovation Garage opens to enable autonomous pizza delivery tests

US pizza restaurant chain Domino’s Pizza has opened a new workspace called Domino’s Innovation Garage at Domino’s Farms in Ann Arbor, Detroit.

Domino’s Innovation Garage will enable the cross-functional teams of the pizza restaurant chain to collaborate, create and test new ideas to take the brand to the next level.

The two-story building features an open-concept design space for 150 Domino’s Pizza’s team members, private meeting rooms and collaboration workspaces.

Domino’s Innovation Garage has a next-generation pizza theater for project-based teams to develop and test new technology, including ordering kiosks and a carryout tracker, in a store scenario.

Domino’s Innovation Garage

Domino’s Innovation Garage in Ann Arbor, Detroit. Photo courtesy of Domino’s Pizza.

The new 33,000sft facility will enable testing of delivery innovations, including the GPS delivery tracking experience, the customer interface on autonomous pizza delivery vehicles and robots such as Nuro’s R2 – an unmanned vehicle that will test pizza deliveries later this year.

The facility will house Domino’s Pizza’s current AnyWare ordering technology, in-store technology, and a quality assurance lab for testing prototypes, apart from future technology.

Kelly Garcia – chief technology officer of Domino’s Pizza said: “Domino’s Innovation Garage is focused on accelerating Domino’s spirit of creativity and collaboration.

“As a pizza company with a focus on technology, we want our team members to have a workspace that encourages experimentation and fosters an environment to take risks, test innovations and fail-fast so they can bring their best cutting-edge ideas to life for the brand’s customers and stores.

“Having a hub for our community of smart, creative and dynamic team members to develop our brand and take it to the next level is important for our continued success.

“We’re proud to now have a space dedicated to learning, exploring, testing and launching new ideas in a way that only Domino’s can do.”

Domino’s Pizza has developed many new ordering platforms, including Google Home, Facebook Messenger, Apple Watch, Amazon Echo and Twitter – as well as Domino’s Hotspots.

The pizza restaurant chain began self-driving vehicle delivery tests in late 2017 while partnering with Nuro for autonomous pizza delivery exploration in June 2019.